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Author: Lene Fogelberg

Find Your Path

Written by Lene Fogelberg on . Posted in Blog. 14 Comments on Find Your Path

Since I wrote my last blog post: This Will Be Interesting, I’ve had a very “interesting” couple of months. Without going into details, let’s suffice it to say that last year was not my best one, but by no means my worst.

All in all, 2018 was a good year, but at the same time a string of disappointments, the one after the other, forced me to put my own advice to practice.

Determined to learn from my disappointments, I have forged on, with my eyes fixed on the future, and refused to dwell on the things that didn’t go my way. And now I am very happy that I did, since I now have a brand new book manuscript ready, which I wrote and edited during the last four months of the year. I have been stretching myself, working on such elements as speed and determination to reach my goal.

And I have learned all over again, that no matter how much other people’s paths to success may inspire, they’re never truly compatible to my own life. I have to find my own path, listen to my own voice, my own heart.

My focus words for 2018 were determination, resilience and patience, and boy, did I need all of these attributes! This year, I will focus on walking steadily down *my* path, and not be distracted by what other people are doing and their choices.

I think that when you’re working in a creative field, there’s always a danger of being pulled down by doors that are slammed in your face, rejections, and even people who try to tear you down. That’s why it’s extra important not to listen to the voices that tell you that you can’t, but instead listen to your heart that tells you that you can.

When you truly want to create something that wasn’t there before, you are always in a sense alone, and you have to find your own path and walk down it with determination. After all, the vision is yours, and the nay-sayers can perhaps glimpse it, but never fully see it until you have materialised it with your own hard work.

These past couple of months, I have also focused on not getting my motivation from outside validation, but to find my energy and joy from the work, the writing, itself. And this has been my best lesson from 2018! I found such tremendous joy in writing this last book manuscript, and I feel more confident and happy with my effort, than any outside validation could have given me. A deep sense of achievement, which no one can take away, because I found my own path through the disappointments, and came out stronger on the other side.

As we’re entering this new year, I’m wishing you boundless joy and fulfillment, dear friends! Let’s walk down our paths with confidence and a spring in our steps!

Love,

Lene

P.S. I snapped the picture as I was walking down to the beach in Tanjong Jara, on the Malaysian East coast. I just love the view of the little pathway and the stairs leading down to the water. Discovering this beautiful place was definitely one of the highlights of 2018.

This Will Be Interesting

Written by Lene Fogelberg on . Posted in Blog. 19 Comments on This Will Be Interesting

Have you ever felt overwhelmed? Ok, that was a rhetorical question, I am sure you have, as have I, many times.

Life is hard. Sometimes it feels like stuff is thrown at us with lightning speed. We are filled with questions regarding the future: How will we manage? What if…? What if not…? The worry, or angst, can be paralyzing, not to mention times when we are overcome by grief, sadness, or depression.

I have often wondered at how we are born and instantly just thrown into the chaos, left to make our decisions as best we can. I certainly didn’t come with a manual that warned about my hidden congenital heart disease, or the depression that I would experience because of it, or the nearly crippling fear before my open-heart surgery. I didn’t have a handbook called “How to Raise Toddlers When Your Body is Ninety Years Old and No-one Knows Why”.

But I want to share one approach that I have found to give comfort in any circumstance we might find ourselves in. I have at least not yet encountered any situation where this approach wasn’t useful or comforting.

When my first book, the Wall Street Journal bestseller Beautiful Affliction, was about to be published, I was thrown onto a roller coaster of emotions that I wasn’t prepared for. It was a mix of anxiety for how the book would be received, the fear that often comes from walking into unknown territory, the uncomfortable feeling of exposing myself, and constant decisions that needed to be made, with no way of knowing for sure how the decisions would impact the book’s success.

My way of coping with this prolonged stressful situation, was to repeat the mantra that had helped me through the challenges described in the book: This will be interesting. I chased away thoughts that worried about success, and let myself rest in the assurance, that either way, the journey would be interesting. The assurance that I would learn a lot. The belief that things would work out for the best and even if they didn’t, it would at least be interesting.

It might sound simple, but the truth is we can always grow, always learn something. If nothing else, we can examine and learn from our own emotional response to the situation we are in. That is, I have found, often extremely interesting. Because we are not so different after all, and anything we can learn from our own experiences, can help us connect with others in a more profound way. Every time we feel something, which is all the time, we grow to better understand humanity.

As writers, we can use what we learn in our work, but every person is a creator–a writer of sorts–of their own story, and we can use what we learn in our interactions with friends and family, and thus grow, and learn, and grow even more. Even in times when we feel like our lives stand still and we learn nothing at all. Perhaps especially in such times.

Then, whatever dark place we find us in, the view can still be interesting, and even spectacular.

Love,

Lene

To Create Amid Uncertainty

Written by Lene Fogelberg on . Posted in Blog. 10 Comments on To Create Amid Uncertainty

Virginia Woolf said that “a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction”.

I often come across this quote on social media, and it always stirs something in my chest. Perhaps because I had very little money for many years (which is often what happens when you have children early, and I regret nothing) and I still don’t have a room of my own. In addition, for the last ten years I have moved five times, of which 3 have been to another continent, and four to another country. I have lived in the US, Sweden, Indonesia and now, Malaysia, and I am tremendously grateful for all the experiences I have gained, thanks to my husband’s work, which takes us across the globe.

The way this expat-life works, is that our contract has to be renewed every year, and we consequently never know more than, and often less than, a year in advance where we are going to live. Of these past ten years, we have lived two in our native Sweden, and close to seven years in Asia.

Often have I felt a yearning for my own space to create in, a place that is constant. I dream of writing in front of a window with a view to a meadow, or the ocean. I can certainly understand why Virginia Woolf felt the way she did in her day, long before laptops and internet.

And I feel there is more to a room of one’s own, than the physical space. I feel that Virginia probably meant that we need peace of mind, the kind of peace that money and a room of one’s own can give, that will let the writer immerse herself in her work completely.

But unless we become John Donne’s famous “island”, we will always have things on our minds, important things, and less important. Life is a constant change, full of anxiety, worry, uncertainty, health issues, I guess even with “money and a room” of one’s own.

Even writing itself is full of uncertainty. Will this piece of writing fulfil my expectations? Will it find a home in the publishing world? Will people like it?

I have found that when I focus on writing for myself, I can concentrate better on the work, and it becomes more enjoyable. It is also easier to shut out the anxiety that is inherent in writing, as well as the uncertainties that come from living in a foreign country. When I feel passionate about a writing project, I let that passion guide me into the text, where I can forget all worries, and just create. Then creating becomes a refuge, something constant amid the ever-changing. All these years, no matter how little money, or how little space I’ve had, I have always had writing, like an anchor in a turbulent sea. And for this I am so very grateful.

Love,

Lene

10 Ways To Boost Your Creativity

Written by Lene Fogelberg on . Posted in Blog. 10 Comments on 10 Ways To Boost Your Creativity

Happy New Year, everyone! As we’re beginning this new year, I have been thinking about creativity, especially since I’ve experienced a surge in inspiration this past week after we returned from our holiday in Sydney, Australia.

Still a little jet lagged from our trip, new ideas for writing projects keep popping up in my mind, and I have felt compelled to examine this process further, by pondering how, why and when I have experienced increased creativity in my life.

1) I do think that our health has a great impact on all aspects of life, creativity included, but I also know from experience that doing something creative can be a great source of comfort and even alleviate pain. Since this post is about boosting creativity, the first step would be to do what we can to feel healthy and well-rested. But, as I told you, in the midst of jetlag and general post holiday/travel fatigue, I have felt a surge of creativity that consequently must have been generated from other sources of inspiration.

2) Since we just came back from our travel to Australia, full of new impressions, my first thought was that this must be a great booster of creativity. To experience new places, sights, sounds, scents and tastes, and to interact with new people. To marvel over the wonderfully cheerful Australian accent, to be called “love” and to “ooh” and “aah” over the fireworks next to strangers who helped us get the best viewing spot over the harbour.

3) Yes, this, to meet new people, should be its own item on the list. To talk to them, to listen to their stories, and to, just as importantly for a writer, observe them. Not in a stalker-ish way, but just as they go about their ordinary business. In Sydney, I couldn’t help but notice the street singer who always stood in the same corner in his washed-out jeans and blond curls, singing Hallelujah with a silky voice to the tunes from his worn guitar; the tanned, muscular woman working on the ferry, lassoing the thick ropes like a cowboy as the ferry docked; the cashier in the corner supermarket, interrupting the loud stream of words into his cell phone to look up at us with a soft “How can I help you?”.

4) And in the evenings, when we were sprawled out on the living room sofa after having walked all over Sydney, we enjoyed to watch TV: news, series, comedy, anything that gave us an additional flavour of the Australian culture, and insights into the people and their stories. For example, we watched the miniseries called Hoges about Paul Hogan, the real life Crocodile Dundee. It was really enlightening, and helped me understand just how big of a phenomenon Hogan was and still is in Australia, and how much his story helped shape the Australian brand overseas and domestically. Whenever I encounter a new place, I also enjoy to read up on people and places, to more fully understand the culture. A while back I read a lot by novelist Patrick White, and it was such a great experience to visit the country he so vividly described in his novels.

5) I already mentioned that we walked a lot, and I mean A LOT. Wow, we got so much exercise, and even though I was very tired in the evenings, it must have done me good, since I’m having this surge in well-being and creativity. We rented a small town house by Barangaroo Reserve, in the heart of Sydney, with harbour views from nearly every window. I took the picture above a few steps from our front door, and it was wonderful to breathe the ocean air, and watch the sun set, mirrored in the silvery water.

6) This, to spend time in nature, seems to always recharge my mind, body and soul in every way. Somehow I feel happier, stronger, more alive and more like myself, when I am surrounded by trees, rocks, earth and water. It seems to sharpen my senses, make me more aware of the details in every leaf of grass, flower and every ripple of the water surface.

7) These beautiful views seem to urge me to capture them, when I was younger on canvas, and nowadays more often using photography. This in turn, I believe helps me see more details, moods, shadows and shades, that I otherwise might have missed. Learning photography has turned to be a great source of inspiration in my writing, I believe. Come to think of it, the first chapter of Beautiful Affliction starts with a photograph! 🙂

8) Indeed, all crafts tend to cross-pollinate each other, which is why, I believe, so many writers are also artists, musicians, designers, gardeners, photographers, bakers etc. To do something crafty, seems to stimulate our creative minds in all directions.

9) And as we engage in our favourite crafts, we tend to gravitate to, but also attract, other creative people, who can be a great source of inspiration. These days we needn’t create in solitude, instead we can find like-minded friends on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, in the blogosphere, and of course, IRL: in real life.

10) Learning from and about other creative people, can also help us cultivate positive paradigms on craft/creativity and lift our spirits when we suffer setbacks or when we feel like the well of our creativity has dried up. I love the uplifting “can do”-spirit that is often shared on Instagram, and the many tips from bloggers, and the never-ending jokes and shenanigans on Twitter. Perhaps especially for me, a Swedish writer living in Asia, social media has proven to be a valuable source of inspiration, connection and a place to find friends, now that I live so far from home.

I hope you found something in here that might help you boost your creativity, and if you did, I’d love to hear from you! Maybe you have a tip that you’d like to add to the list, or maybe you’d like to share an experience when one of these “boosters” worked for you. Anyhow, feel free to comment below!

With Love,

Lene

10 Tips For A Writing Retreat At Home

Written by Lene Fogelberg on . Posted in Blog. 10 Comments on 10 Tips For A Writing Retreat At Home

Many authors go on a Writing Retreat from time to time. Which usually means they go away to a cabin, or some sort of a resort, alone or with fellow writers, to concentrate on their writing, sometimes financed through a scholarship or a foundation.

Writing Retreat. For a long time those words sounded magical to me, like they were reserved for a few chosen ones. What masterpieces these authors created during these Writing Retreats, I could only imagine.

Would I ever go on a Writing Retreat? With me living in Kuala Lumpur, I realized that my chances were slim (there are not many Writing Retreats here that I am aware of). Still I felt the need to concentrate on my writing, for a period of time, to see if I could increase my productivity and creativity.

I decided to do it at home. All summer I’ve been having a Writing Retreat in my own home, and this is what I learned:

10 Tips For a Successful Writing Retreat At Home

1) Choose a time that you know will stand a chance of working out, for yourself and your family. The Winter holidays might not be the best option. I chose Summer break, when my girls went back to Sweden and it was just my husband and I at home. I started a few weeks before the school year ended and continued for one week after the girls came home, giving me about twelve weeks in all.

2) Decide what your boundaries are, and discuss them with your family with the mindset to make this work as smoothly as possible for everyone. I told my husband that I needed total immersion in my work, that I would not go to social functions, or cook anything other than very basic food (oatmeal, sandwiches, salad). My husband totally supported me, and did a lot of cooking, which was a treat!

3) Decide on a goal from the get go. Imagine the Big Finish. How will it feel? What will you have accomplished? Challenge yourself. Set a high goal for the entire time, and divide it into smaller chunks: weekly and daily goals. That way you’ll know every day what you need to achieve that day that will take you to the Big Finish.

4) Explain to your partner and your children why this goal is important to you, what you hope to achieve, and that you need their support. When they feel involved in your project, instead of shut out, they will be more inclined to support you. Also explain that they are as important to you as ever, and you will be there for them should anything big come up, but you just need this particular time and brainspace to work on your goal.

5) Give yourself brainspace! Clear your mind from stuff that distract you from your project. That means minimal social media, news, e-mailing etc. And do not pick up your long neglected hobby! Your brain might resist the writing in the beginning (and in the middle, and in the end), and come up with loads of other activities; urgent gardening, home decorating, baking… the list is endless. Tell yourself you can do these things after the Writing Retreat is finished. Stay focused! It’s that “just this one project around the house” that will throw you out of the writing bubble.

6) But don’t take it too seriously. You’re on a Writing Retreat, not in prison. Go for walks and to the gym, listen to music, call someone or meet someone when you feel lonely. Don’t write ALL the time. You need to move your body, eat healthy, shower etc. Many good ideas have been hatched in the shower. 🙂 Don’t forget that writing time includes pondering your project, which often works best when you’re not sitting by the computer.

7) You will inevitably have bad writing days, even though you have prepared hard and is doing everything right. No panic! Just let it come and go. Try to push yourself to write anyway. Or don’t.

8) You will inevitably lag behind with your daily writing goals. No panic! You will catch up another day. Suddenly there are good writing days when the words flow from your fingers like clear mountain streams. Enjoy those days.

9) When the Writing Retreat is over, give yourself credit for all you accomplished, even if you didn’t quite meet your goal. The arts is a fickle business, and we cannot produce material like a machine. You did good, just showing up for the retreat and for seeing it through! Good job!

10) It can be a weird feeling, to go back into the world after being immersed in a project. You might experience some “mind vertigo”. Give yourself a few days to adjust. You might feel relief that the retreat is over, or you might miss it. Either way, life will slowly go back to normal. Don’t forget to show appreciation to everyone who supported you during your Writing Retreat.

(My writing couch)

So how did my Writing Retreat go?

Mid through I started to notice some back pain; which was good and bad news: I had been writing too much, if that is even possible! I adjusted my routine to include more physical activity and the back pain went away.

I ate a lot of chocolate, which was a nice perk, he he.

Towards the end I felt somewhat claustrophobic and joined my husband on a work trip to the ocean for a few days, which was lovely, but made me miss a few days worth of word count. The next time he went back to the ocean for work, I didn’t go with him, instead I stayed home to focus on my writing.

And in the end I reached my Big Finish, which was a great feeling! Woo-hoo! I did complete a twelve-week Writing Retreat in my own home!

I realize twelve weeks is on the longer side, but the next time I decide to have a two weeks, or one week, or even a one weekend Writing Retreat at home, I’ll be better prepared for what’s waiting.

Hope you too found some inspiration from my experience of having a Writing Retreat at home!

Love,
Lene

Editing: From Nay to YAY!

Written by Lene Fogelberg on . Posted in Blog. 14 Comments on Editing: From Nay to YAY!


Hello friends! I’ve been feeling a bit exhausted lately, so when my husband invited me to join him at a conference last weekend in Bagan Lalang, on the Malaysian Goldcoast, I gladly accepted. And I must have found the inspiration I needed, because I managed to finish the very last revisions in the manuscript for my novel! It was the third/fourth round of edits, so no wonder I was getting a little tired of looking at the same paragraphs over and over…

I had saved the hardest parts for last (I always do this: pick the “low hanging fruit” first, aka the “easy” edits, and then I end up with a bunch of difficult places to go over…) but sitting in a comfy armchair in our house on the ocean, with the sliding doors to the balcony open to this view, and the warm ocean breeze…; I guess this was just the right spot for me, because suddenly those difficult parts were not so difficult anymore, and I found solutions to passages that have frustrated me for weeks.

So I guess that’s the solution to editing frustration: relax, breathe, and enjoy beautiful scenery. Come to think of it, that sounds like a good solution to many kinds of frustrations.

And it’s another story that I woke up Monday morning with a few new revisions in mind! (Maybe I got an overdose of beautiful scenery, ha ha.) But these new ideas were minor really, and easily fixed, so I do have a finished manuscript! Phew! After all this time! It feels surreal; at one point I thought I’d never finish, especially since so much time this year went to physio therapy for my hand, travels, and getting settled in Kuala Lumpur.

Now I can’t wait to start my next book project, I have already started to brainstorm a couple of book ideas. I feel like this is a magical phase, when characters grow from vague notions to real people, and setting and plot come together. This is also the phase when I enjoy immensely to read books on writing, just to boost the place in my brain where stories are born.

So this is what’s been going on with me lately. Hope you’re all having wonderful late winter/spring months, and enjoying yourselves wherever you are!

Hugs,

Lene

PS. If you want more pictures from Bagan Lalang, you are very welcome to check out my Instagram account.

(Beginnings)

Written by Lene Fogelberg on . Posted in Blog. 10 Comments on (Beginnings)

Beginnings

Hello friends! A new year has begun, and I was excited to celebrate its first days in Sydney, Australia, which has been a place I’ve dreamed of visiting for a long time. I took the pictures at Bondi Beach, which was even more amazing in real life; even more golden and actually less crowded than I had anticipated.

Bondi Beach

This is the street above the beach, with that lovely “beachy” vibe:

Street Bondi

It was the perfect holiday! We, my husband and I, watched the fireworks from our hotel room overlooking Darling harbour, walked along the ocean, took the ferry to the famous Opera house, and bought more than one boomerang, a Crocodile Dundee hat, and even two Aboriginal paintings.

Here’s the mandatory photo of the Opera house, taken from the ferry:

Sydney Opera House

If you want more pictures from our adventure in Australia, there’s a bunch over at my Instagram account, link can be found on the main menu.

Now we are back home in Kuala Lumpur, our girls are back from Sweden and school has started, and the cold I contracted on New Year’s Eve is finally gone. Time to get busy again! I have a couple of deadlines, and the last round of edits for my novel to look into, and then I am eager to start a new project! I have a few ideas that I am planning to outline to see where they take me. Exciting!

Oh, and did you see the German cover of Beautiful Affliction? It’s got a new title and new cover image, if you’re curious you can check the “BOOK” page or the “NEWS” page on this site. I like it, even though it’s very different from the original.

I am hoping that you all have had a great start to the new year, and wishing you lots of love, health and happiness.

Hugs,

Lene

(One Year)

Written by Lene Fogelberg on . Posted in Blog. 16 Comments on (One Year)

anniversary

One year ago today was pub day for Beautiful Affliction! So much has happened this past year, more than I dared dream of, and I am just so grateful. Grateful to my publishers; the whole team at SheWrites Press, my team of agents and especially David, my readers, bloggers, friends, and family; everyone who has supported me on this journey of publishing my debut book! Thank you!

Even before pub day, September 15, 2015, I was overwhelmed by the endorsements given by authors that I admire, and then on pub day, my book got a review in BookPage, which left me speechless and tearfully grateful. Some ten weeks later I was contacted by David, who would become my literary agent at Abrams Artists Agency, and one week after that, Beautiful Affliction climbed to #3 on The Wall Street Journal Bestseller list. I had told myself early on during this process that I would try not to expect too much, but rather learn as much as possible, and by this time, around Christmas, I just wide-eyed soaked it all in, while we relocated from Jakarta to Kuala Lumpur, with a stop in Sweden on the way.

Now Beautiful Affliction has been sold to a German publisher, and it has won awards, even National Gold Medal in the Independent Publisher Book Awards 2016, and just yesterday my article was featured in the The Huffington Post, something I could never have imagined a year ago.

Sometimes I still feel like the Swedish girl living in Asia who has no clue how to publish a book, but then I remind myself how far we have come, my book and I, and how much we have learned (and I’m still the Swedish girl living in Asia! 🙂 ). Before Beautiful Affliction was published I came across a quote by Wayne Dyer: “The future is promised to no one, so go for it!” and it really helped me realize that success is not only promised to already famous and successful authors, but anything might happen, and it is always worthwhile to work hard for a goal one is passionate about.

These days I am working on editing my next novel, and I love it! This is my favorite part of the writing process, but also very time consuming. I easily get lost in details, so I have to push myself to move forward instead of rewriting the same words over and over (and over) again. I really do love writing, and I am grateful that I get to spend my time doing what I love.

Thanks for stopping by and celebrating my book baby’s first birthday with me!

With Love,

Lene